The Medea Project: Mythic Theater For Incarcerated Women

The Medea Project: Mythic Theater for Incarcerated Women Author(s): Sara L. Warner Source: Feminist Studies, Vol.
30, No. 2, The Prison Issue (Summer, 2004), pp. 483-509 Published by: Feminist Studies, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20458976 . Accessed: 25/11/2013 02:27
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The Medea Project: for Mythic Theater Incarcerated Women
Sara L.Warner
[S]ometimes the stories take you and fling you against awall sometimes you go right through the wall -Alicia Ostriker, "coda," TheVolcanoSequence PERFORMANCE ARTIST AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST Rhodessa Inspired by the success of her one-woman ate an ensemble with Jones began
women in the late 1980s. conducting dramaworkshops with incarcerated

show based on the lives of four jail. She used as
Headed Women, Jonesdecided to cre inmates in her class,BigButt Girls-Hard

the inmates at San Francisco County
Massa amodel Jean Trounstine's theater workshop insideFramingham, chusetts, Prison for Women.' Never one to think small, Jonesenvisioned a troupe thatwould not only write and stage originalworks, but one that would perform in professional theatersfor public audiences.She enlisted
the help of Sean Reynolds, and together Department they assembled to allow a social worker and health educator at the jail, a talented collective of artists and activists to in a public per crowd at
work with the inmates,but it took three years to persuade the Sheriff's
incarcerated women to participate
IsJust Outside formance. In 1992,the group staged its firstproduction, Reality

theWindow: The Tragedy ofMedea Jackson, to a standing-room-only the Theatre Artaud in San Francisco. The performance was loosely based
on Euripides's Medea, and Jones dubbed their experiment theMedea Women.2 Theater for Incarcerated Project:
The decision to use Medea stemmed from the fact that a young woman
2004). C 2004 by Feminist Studies, Inc.
Feminist Studies 30, no. 2 (Summer
483
484
SaraL.Warner
in the theater workshop, who was incarceratedfor infanticide, was being ostracized and taunted by the other inmates. Jones told thewomen the story ofMedea and Jasonand asked the group to interpret it in relation ship to their own lives, to considerways inwhich theywere like Medea, but also different.She created a seriesof questions to guide their explora
tion of the myth and asked the women towrite a piece-an autobiography,
poem, song, or rap-each night for homework. The participants shared their responseswith the group, and thesewritings formed the basis of
what became the script for the public performance. What the inmates in
the dramaworkshop came to realize, says Jones, is that everyone could

relate to Medea in some way: "Medea killed her children As women, in revenge be we all cause she loved aman too much.... all of us women,
love toomuch. We're more thanwilling to give over everything to a man." The inmates identifiedwith the story, according to Reynolds,
because of the way Medea her life. That's must "interacted with her children, with who gay or straight.3In the men in as it an important issue for women are incarcerated,
be for all women,"
black or white,
her ground
Medea:Rhodessa breaking study of theMedea Project, Imagining Jonesand Incarcerated Rena Fraden suggests that themyth resonated Theaterfor Women, with the inmatesbecause:
Medea is full of rage, and so are the women in jail. LikeMedea these women are seen by society as outsiders, barbarians. LikeMedea they have committed crimes against them. They too have broken taboos,
and crimes have been committed
transgressed laws. They arewomen who are ruled by their passions, who are self deceptive, and who destroy others.... And, likeMedea, many of the women are master storytellers. Storytelling can be a con game, a trick used against one's foes. It can also be the beginning of a different drama-a way to imagine, ifnot live out, a new life."4
Fraden identifies storytelling as the link between Euripides's play, the inmates,and Jones's workshop process. She describes theMedea Project's praxis as "epicstorytelling,"aligning itwith the revolutionarypolitics of Bertolt Brecht's epic theater.Fraden discusses the group's adaptation of
Medea and other tales at length, referring to the process as the creation of
counter-epics. Storytelling is also noted by filmmakerLarryAndrews as the central element of the Medea Project.His docudrama chronicling the Stories. What Ibelieve group's 1999public performance isentitledJustTelling
ismissing in both Fraden and Andrews's work on the Medea Project is a
SaraL.Warner
485
discussion of mythology, of the relationship between storytelling and mythmaking in the theater workshop process. In this article I explore themythic roots ofMedea Project storytelling. Specifically,I am interested inwhat an activistaestheticgrounded in revi sionist mythology offers theMedea Project and its participants and whether thispraxiscan serve as the foundation for apostmodern feminist theory. I offer here a paleomythic performance ethnography, a partici pant-observer's analysis of theMedea Project's 2001 springworkshop. Paleomythology isa termborrowed fromClarissaPinkolaEstes to describe the practice of bearingwitness to and/or collecting intercambio cuentos, story Estesdistinguishesbetween story tradesand storytelling to empha trades. size the reciprocityof the activity aswell as themythic aspect. Intercambio cuentos are gift exchanges that involve a considerablecost or sacrifice."The with the bringingup, haul relatingof a story,"according to Estes, "begins both and of ing up psychic content, collective personal.The process is a long exertion in time and energy,both intellectualand spiritual;it is inno way an idle practice." I use the term "performance ethnography" to describe my retelling (andyou, the reader'slistening)because the inmates' storiescannot be "studied." They are "learned" only through assimilation, through living in proximitywith thosewho know them, live them, and
teach them. As Estes notes, "a story is not just a story. In itsmost innate
and proper sense, it issomeone's life."5

THE DESCENT I first attended many TO INNANA: A STORY TRADE aMedea Project production I had almost in 1996, but it was not until my doctoral studies on
years later, when
completed
mythology and postmodern performance at Rutgers University, that I contacted Jonesaboutworking with the group. I spent fourmonths with
the Medea Project in 2001, serving as dramaturge and videographer on
their sixth public performance, CanWe Get TherebyCandlelight? Jones entrusted me with the task of selecting themyth on which Candlelight would be based.She explained that the production had to satisfy the con ditions of the Rockefeller grant thatwas underwriting the performance.
The buzz in correctional and penal administration was the concept of
reentry-how to assist inmates in their reentry into society, communities,

and families as functioning or rehabilitated that related participants to reentry, once they are released. Jones wanted a myth featured women,
486
SaraL.Warner
involved wanted
a journey, amyth
and explored
the concept
of home.
Finally,
Jones
that the project had not used in a previous production. Project had already explored the most popular Western
The Medea myths
that fit these criteria. After Reality IsJust Outside theWindow, the group and
Dead (1994), a revision of the Demeter staged FoodTaboos in theLandof the
Persephonemyth, which journeyed "into contemporary hell to explore

the victimization and criminalization of women." A Taste of SomethingElse: of addiction and A Place at theTable (1994) dramatized recovery through the cyclical patterns in what
the figure of Sisyphus. Rooted Buried Fire (1996) celebrated perpetual struggle
Jones calls "the
art of re-memory," of the female
"the trials and tribulations to find her own voice, to
offender's
reclaim herself, her own of the ugly duckling women's
life." Taking Hans Christian Andersen's explored
fairytale
as its basis, this production
"the incarcerated and, hope for Slouching
story of pain, degradation,
self-induced
alienation,
fully, transformation."
Pandora provided
the source material
towards Armageddon:A Captive's Conversation/ObservationonRace (1999), an inves
tigation into "themisconceived ethno-realities that cloak our culture." The production demonstrated "how traditionalviews, historical realities,
and the interaction al reality of modern of these cultural American."6 for the next Medea oldest Project stories play out in the diverse cultur
I assured Jones that I had the perfect myth the myths nating of Inanna are among Sumer, the world's
production, the SumerianQueen Inanna. Although relativelyunknown,

recorded stories, origi tales were inscribed in in ancient now modern Iraq. Her
various versions on clay tablets in cuneiformwriting sometime between

1900 B.C.E. and 3500 B.C.E., possibly even earlier. Similar Kali and Devi, Inanna was conceived to the Hindu one who deities gives of as a dual goddess,
life and takes it away, a goddess powerful principle the West exclaimed, tale, which
of love and of strife. In Inanna's most and rebirth, the greatest divine for
tells of her death
is female. Remarking of Inanna's "Suddenly discovery
on the historical in the twentieth
and literary import century,
Judy Grahn is replaced not dragged
the male-female
schism of Greek myth is not fractured,
by a 'new' story; in this one, about in wars, not waiting, not dren, not cursed or reviled." body of the howling, many women
the feminine
'all that is fair,' not killed by its own chil Inanna is "the sinuous, breathtaking full "what so
spitting, untamed
goddess."7 She embodies
long for, a spirituality grounded
in the reflection of a divine
SaraL.Warner
487
woman."8 The
lure of Inanna for many
feminists
lies in the fact that she is
"nevera settled and domesticwife nor mother under the patriarchy.She keeps her independenceandmagnetism as lover,young bride,andwidow. And she'snot amother-lover to sons."9 Persuadedbymy passionatepitch,
Jones agreed that Inanna would We Get There by Candlelight? serve nicely as a foundation myth for Can
Iwas both nervous and excited about being designated as the person to
tell the myth When of Inanna to the inmates when the drama workshop began. Iwas I entered the jail lobby at 6:00 P.M. for the initial meeting,
introduced to theMedea Project collective for the first time:Reynolds, EdrisCooper-Anifowoshe, Fe Bongolan, Nancy Johnson,Gina Dawson, Elizabeth Spackman, Renee Walker, Stephanie Johnson, Pam Peniston, LisaPaltry,LibahSheppard, andAngela Wilson. Most of these artistsand activistshaveworked with theMedea Project since its genesis.The group was joined thisyear by five interns, Wilson is the newest myself included.
member of the collective. She entered the lobby in a dramatic fashion.
"I'm a nervous wreck," she shouted. "Somebodycalmme down." This

session marked side, as aMedea the first time Wilson volunteer was returning to jail from the other in rather than as an inmate. She participated
the 1999performance of Slouching while incarcerated,and she credits this experiencewith giving her themotivation she needed to change her life.
A white woman originally from Iowa farm country, Wilson was an addict,
who had abandonedher child. She now works prostitute, and petty thief as a counselor for theSheriff's Department, has a scholarshipat the presti giousAmerican ConservatoryTheater, and isactively involved in rebuild
ing a lifewith her son. Wilson is the Medea Project's greatest success story where
to-date.
After we a brief meeting, we moved to the jail's clearance window licenses the main signed the log book and traded our driver's then escorted by a deputy for blue visitor gate into a
badges. We were
through
locker room where we were granted me permission informed by the deputy
told to place our personal
effects. Jones had research, but Iwas
to record the rehearsals for my
that I could not record because video clearance were
and consent
forms had not yet been processed. Once our belongings
stored, we were women's facility
taken to the fourth floor and led down a long hall to the jail is a relatively new called pods. The both women and men in sections
unit called E-Pod. San Francisco County that houses
488
SaraL.Warner
main areaof the jail resembles the StarshipEnterprise,employing a sleek

metal design with silver blue paint and carpet, whereas the pod decor can
The pod is a bilevel semicir McDonald's Playland-like. best be describedas

cular structure. Cells are located along the curved axis of both levels and a
guard station is suspendedbetween them along the straight axis for opti mal panopticon viewing. Top-level cells house two inmatesbehind clear glass doors. Bottom-level units house four inmates.These cells have no
doors and are fully exposed to the guards and the other inhabitants of the
pod. The beds are all bunk style, the kind one might choose for a child's bedroom. Bed frames are painted a bright reddish orange, a color that clashes violently with the silver blue carpet and walls. The center of the
room contains a series of tables and chairs, again in bright reddish orange,
which are bolted to the floor and have checkerboardspainted on them. Exposed pay phones are located on support posts throughout this floor.
At the end of the bottom row of cells are bathroom units, solitary con
finement cells, and a kitchenette area. By the timewe made it through the various checkpoints itwas well
On entering after 6:30 P.M. the pod, we encountered a long line of women
waiting for the guard/pharmacist to dispensemedications. The restof the

inmates were in their cell spaces, and most were chatting or getting their
was inten hair braided. The claustrophobia I immediatelyfelt in this space

sified by the fact that the pod was filled to capacity and that there were no windows. pating When the guard noticed Project tomove us, she called for the women who partici their in the Medea to line up. They it or lose it. took their time getting
shoes on and assembling, orders for the women
too long for Reynolds,
started barking
Jones,Reynolds, and Spackman had come to the jail the previousweek

to give an overview of the Medea Project to all seventy-five inmates in E
Pod.The introductory meeting was mandatory, but theMedea Project is strictly a volunteer program, and only thosewomen interested in the group would attend tonight's workshop. The number of participants
would remain in a constant state of flux until the actual performance the date, Iwas told, due to inmates being released, transferred, or quitting only eighteen
program.Thirty-sevenwomen had signed up for theMedea Project, but

actually lined up for rehearsal, even fewer than Jones had participants appeared to be waiting to see who the women or not to commit. Once predicted. Many would-be
lined up before they decided whether
SaraL.Warner
489
were dressed,a guard escortedus down the hall to our classroom. Inmates cannot leave the pod without being fully dressed in orange khaki pants, orange T-shirt, and orange sweatshirt. They are allowed towear their own undergarments, socks,and shoes or jailissuedones,which, of course, areorange. Jones and Reynolds talked casuallywith the inmates aswe walked, acknowledgingpeople they rememberedfrom the previousweek or past When we reached the classroom, years and engaging in pleasant chitchat. which was really too small for us, thewomen filed inwithout instruction and positioned themselves in a semicircle, the shape of the pod we had just left. JonesandReynolds seated themselves in chairs in the front of the room under the chalkboard with volunteers to their left.Reynolds called which they did roll, and the inmateswere asked to introduce themselves, in themost routinized, disconnected way. The women seemed all too with the group therapy model and the formula of the confession familiar al, narrating theirhistories in the rhetoricof rehaband recovery,breaking with a bit of bravado and pos from thismold only to infuse their stories turingnecessaryfor survival in jail. Two of the inmates proudly announced that they had been in past Medea Project productions, one in 1992and the other in 1996,and they talked briefly about their experiences. Reynolds and Jones asked the women how long theywould be incarcerated,that is, would they still be in jail for the production inApril. Paroled inmates are encouraged to
remain with longer wanted the cast, but few do. One to participate inmate blurted out that she no and asked to be escorted back to the pod, woman an are
which Spackman promptly did. There was no attempt to convince or

cajole nounced the woman into staying. A young African American are full or closed by dark, most that she was scheduled and services to be released that night. Despite the fact
that shelters
inmates
andmidnight, essentially ensuring that they releasedbetween 8:00 P.M. return to the streets. Reynolds asked thewoman, Michelle, where she Michelle said she did not know, Reynolds began a planned to go.'0When
tirade. She chastised all of the inmates for not thinking of this, for not
while sharing informationabout programs, shelters, and support services

they were together in jail. Her diatribe clued me in the Medea in to one of the reasons is no inspirational, so few women participate Project. There
Hoping to ease uplifting program rhetorichere; thisgroup plays hardball.
490
SaraL.Warner
Reynolds's wrath, some women chimed in, offering information about shelters,butMichelle admitted that her plan was to return to the streets and get high. Rather than trying to convince her to change these plans, Reynolds thanked Michelle for her honesty. She told the other partici pants that honesty was the foundation of theMedea Project and that it was not acceptable towaste the group's timewith fantasiesand stories
about what they were going to do. "Let's cut through the denial," Rey
nolds said, "let'sdispense with thebull shit, rightnow."

A woman in the back raised her hand. She looked a stone butch with amullet, like five miles of bad road, a white woman, no teeth, and an arm
full of alternatingneedle tracksand rudimentaryprison tattoos. When she opened hermouth Iwas shocked to hear such a sophisticatedvocabulary. Valerie Schwartz, a forty-seven-year-old who has livedon the streets and
been a heroin mission addict since she was like the Medea fourteen, said that she respected the of groups Project, but she wondered about the effi
cacy and the potential it is scary when alone
for damage when
"we open Pandora's box." She said
the group
leaves and the inmates are left in their cells all that is brought approach. to deal with commit up. Reynolds it, who responded
to deal with
the trauma
first, with Schwartz
her trademark hard-line
"Youhave to deal," she said. is?" Frustrated, them suicide, hanging
"It's your shit. If you are not going
said that she has seen women
selvesfrom the raftersafter leavingsupportgroups. Playingoff their trade mark good cop/bad cop routine, Jones took a softer approach, telling
Schwartz that she felt her pain and heard her concerns, these issues. but that there was no easier way to deal with
Sensing toomuch takeand not enough give, another inmate interrupt ed, demanding that theMedea Projectmembers introduce themselves. I
soon learned that what separated the women on the outside from the
women on the insidewas for themost part circumstantial.The volun

teers' histories were similar, if not the same, as the women in orange: sex
ual abuse, foster care,drug addiction, domestic violence, and poverty. As theprojectmembers shared theirstories,a correctionalofficerentered the room announcing thatMichelle was to be released. Jones asked for five
minutes with her first. The officer agreed and waited slowly around outside. Jones had us and carry Jones all gather around Michelle her over our heads, moving in a circle. She told us to liftMichelle
the room. As we walked,
and Paltry sang "Amen,"and instinctively other women joined in. The
SaraL.Warner
49I
motioned for the group to putMichelle down singing continued as Jones

inside the circle and for her to stand women encounter gently with passed her body the womb in the center, eyes closed, as the first from hand to hand. This was my
circle ritual, an integral element
of the Medea
Projectworkshop process.After hugging the other inmates and the vol with a guard. She promised to phone Jones unteers,Michelle, in tears,left thenextmorning, but she never called.No one expectedher to. Itwas now 8:30P.M., thirty minutes beforewe were scheduled to depart.
Jones announced that itwas time to shift gears and get down to business,
to discuss the issue of performance.She explained theworkshop process

to the women. We "take a myth, fairytale, story, and we build a piece
interpretingthe story from our own experiences."Jones then asked me to

recount nervous the myth we would be using. Although internship, Iwas more than a bit on the first night of my I told what I believed was a
compelling summary of four Inanna myths:

A curious, intelligent, and sexually assured young woman, Inanna, was born in ancient Sumer. Stronger, smarter, and more powerful than her brothers Gilga mesh and Utu, itwas Inanna who tricked her grandfather, Enki, the God of Wis dom, into revealing to her the holy laws of heaven. With a few drinks, she got Enki drunk and stole his power. She shared this knowledge with her people, and the land grew prosperous. Dumuzi, whom Inanna chose for her consort the lowly shepherd she raised up, sharing with him her wealth, wisdom, and womb.
The royal couple had two lovely children, and the land continued to prosper. Despite her success, Inanna was lured by the titillating call of the underworld, which was ruled by her dark sister, Ereshkigal. Inanna told only her most confidant, Ninshubur, trusted that she was embarking on a trip to the Great Below. She
gathered her most prized possessions and began her descent. Like all creatures, Queen Inanna was required to enter the underworld naked and bowed low, and she was asked to part with one of her prized possessions at each of the seven gates of hell as a condition of her entry. When Inanna finally reached the underworld she attempted to steal Ereshkigal's throne. Ereshkigal fixed the evil eye of death on Inanna, turning her into a corpse, and left her body hanging on ameat hook to rot. Ninshubur Ninshubur. instructing paced anxiously at the mouth of the gates of hell, and when have to save Inanna failed to return she went herself. He sent messengers to the gods for help. Only Enki agreed to help to meet with the Dark Queen,
He knew no one could save Inanna, that she would to the underworld
them to empathize with her pain and suffering, which they did. Ereshkigal agreed to release Inanna, on one condition, that she send someone to
492
Sara L.Warner
the underworld
to take her place. Inanna began the arduous journey home, and Inanna emerged, she was greet howev and her children, and Inanna knew that in her place. King Dumuzi,
with every step she regained her strength. When ed with love and kindness by Ninshubur she could not send them to the underworld his Queen.
er, greeted Inanna with cold indifference. He had neither missed nor mourned Inanna knew instantly what she must and sent him to the underworld do. She fixed the evil eye of in her place. IfDumuzi could she death on Dumuzi would
be humbled by the underworld
and survive, he could return as her mate and Inanna survived her descent, too is holy. She died Inanna
deserve to rule by her side. Because
gained the holy laws of the underworld, for the underworld was hero, shaman, queen."' When minute, I finished why Reynolds turned to me
and was reborn, and now she possessed incredible insight and wisdom.
and said, "Now hold
on a is the
did you refer to Ereshkigal
as "the dark sister"?Why off-guard
bad sister always a dark sister?" Caught time that night, my first instinct was
for at least the tenth
to say that it was part of the story;
because it ispart of Ereshkigal isthe dark sister.Reynolds countered, "Just

the story doesn't mean that it isn't racist." Groping for amore meaningful
response, I reverted to abstractacademic jargon,explaining that the dark sister isa figural representationof the repressedfeminine that isultimate
ly elevated wanting Reynolds and valued to dig myself in the tale. On in any deeper, this note Reynolds shook her head not at and began tomoan. Wanting time to consider the issue and definitely looked and proposed
I took a deep breath,
and said, "Point taken." Paltry interjected
that we
consider "the dark sister"an essential element aswe worked on revising the myth and bringing it into contemporary times. Jones,sensing that our time that evening had expired,gave thewomen their first writing assignment.She instructed the inmates to interpret the
story of Inanna they had just heard in their own words, from their own
experiences, using the following set of questions that shewrote on the chalkboard: 1. What was/is your call to the underworld?
2. What were your seven gates of hell?What 3. Who 4. What 5. What 6. Where is your dark sister?What is the wisdom did you give up? lured you to her? have you learned? are you
of the underworld? What
do you have to do to save yourself? do your loyalties lie? Who is loyal to you? To whom
loyal?
SaraL.Warner
493
Volunteers distributedphotocopies of the Inanna story alongwith paper and pens to thewomen, helping the three people who could not write well copy the homework questions.There was a flurryof activity asRey nolds instructed the women to gather their belongings and line up. Severalpeople engaged in hugs andwell wishes aswe walked thewomen
back to the E-Pod. We rode the elevator down to the locker room and
stood in line ourselves to trade in our visitor badges for our ID cards in we split up aswe made our way to the relative silence.Exiting the lobby, parking lot or the subwaystation.This brought the first workshop session
to a close.
Reynolds's comments about the racial implicationsof "the dark sister" definitely gaveme pause. Itwas certainly in the spiritof feminist revision but Reynolds's assertion that Iwas that I intended the term "darksister," not sensitive enough to the racializeddiscourses ofmythology and psy chology, especiallygiven the context and the racial make-up ofmy audi ence in jail,indicatesthat my attempted subversiveuse of the term "dark"
did not register as such, at least not with some of my listeners."2 Her cri
tique echoed ElizabethAbel's insistence thatwe ask, "How do different What rhetorical criticaldiscoursesboth inflectand inscriberacialfantasies? strategiesdo these discoursesproduce, and (how) do these strategiesbear on the value of the readings they ostensibly legitimate?" Did I violate Walter Benjamin's cardinal rule of storytelling, that storiesbe told, "with out explanation, combing the extraordinary with the ordinary" in such a way that the "psychologicalconnection of events isnot forced"on the lis
tener or reader, and "it is left to him to interpret stands them." Should consider this anytime have been more I have deleted of given I tell the tale or was things the way he under I to that I should as the the "dark" in "dark sister"? Should this something the audience the power at hand? According to heal as well
conscious
Estes, stories are like medicine, power to poison.
having
A story told "in the wrong
place, wrong
time, wrong
amount," may know
by the "wrong teller ... unprepared some of what
teller" or to a "person who not to do," will
to do, but does not know what
"like anymedicine . . .not have the desired effect, or else a deleterious What would be the implicationsofmy storytelling on the group, one."'13 on my internship,onmy relationship with these women?
494
SaraL.Warner
THE CALL OF THE UNDERWORLD

AND THE SEVEN GATES OF HELL
The myth
tells us that Inanna, a happy and prosperous
queen, hears a call
from the Great Below, but it does not tell us the nature of the call or why she is summoned. journey We know only that she responds to the call, that her of
is shrouded
in secrecy, and that she steals away in the middle
the night without telling her husband, her subjects,or her children that
she is leaving. We know threatening, too that the trip is dangerous, her vizier, Ninshubur, to contact potentially with life for Inanna provides a set of de that she in a simi Jones and
tailed instructions
to follow and people
in the event
does not return. The Medea lar way Reynolds to the archetypal use amythical
Project workshop scenario
process functions
of the call and response.
narrative
as a call to the inmates, and the women its relationship to their own lives and as
are asked to respond by interpreting experiences. unprepared Initially it appeared
that the majority
of the inmates were returned
for the call as Iwas because when we
to the jail for
the secondworkshop session, the number of attendees had dwindled to

nine. Of these nine, just over half came prepared with complained some kind of writ the ten response. A few people about that they did not understand
exercise and therefore did not do it, but as the women their call to the underworld clear that most of them readily identified with Inanna, or at least my Inanna's
talked that night journey and her for
and the seven gates of hell, it became retelling of it, initially seemed to suspect, partici to the
sacrifices. Although the inmates'
to be an ill fit for the group, self-exploration. pating in the Medea underworld.
it turned out to be a very enabling myth As I had already begun involves a journey as material with
Project, even as a volunteer, of personal experience
The mining a descent
for story the queen
telling necessitates
and a face-to-face
encounter
of hell.
Rachael awaiting Barnes, a Native American woman of imposing stature, was transfer to a drug program outlet and joined the Medea Project search
ing for "some positive experiences, ly, she would
in jail." Recounting
a litany of near death
Barnes said that if she did not get out of "the life" immediate surely die:
I've been in the life for 20 years now and Iwould have to say that itwas not only the dope that kept me out in the streets. Itwas the need to be around all these others who felt just as I did! The pain I had to carry was so heavy so I use PCP,
SaraL.Warner
495
crack, hop and alcohol daily. I did not feel good about who where
Iwas so I stayed Iwas the
Iwas important, a thug, a real gangster to those around me.
bitch, so I thought. As time went on I lostmy self respect (1). Ihurt my spirit (2). I gave my children tomy mother (3). I sold myself for drugs (4). I've lostmy dig in the is ... life. I nity (5). I just did not care (6). Iwas ready to die! (7) . . .God stopped me children, my family. My mother whom mother want
middle of my addiction so I can live and make a better way for myself and my I resented for years, my mother who I'm not ready to die. Iwant tomy children, my mother who did not know how to bemy mother to be amother
she stayed and held on to her daughter....
not just by giving birth. Iwant to be there and I feel good
about my decision. I made it forme. That's what is so special. It's not for the chil dren, themother, it's forme.
Kristie white woman from ruralPennsyl Miller, a thirty-one-year-old

vania, was also awaiting transfer to a drug program. She was the least
hardened of all the participants.Despite a decade-long heroin addiction

and the life that this entails, she had not lost any of her teeth and did not sport any visible scars. She said she had completed two years of college,
earning aGPA of 3.93,before quitting school to follow theGratefulDead. Miller wrote:

When Inanna returned from the heavens with her newly found knowledge, she after being gone for several years. I felt very "world was crowned Queen because of her great wisdom. This is the way Ihad felt when I returned tomy hometown ly," like a queen within my own right. I pitied the others who never experienced anything more than what had seemed tome to be the mundane routineness of small town life. I did not realize how naive I really was. Iwas in a sense "married" tomy innocence, like Inanna's marriage to the simple shepherd. Continuing my lifestyle, I experimented with every drug that came my way.... Itwas not long before heroin became my drug of choice and I became very addicted. This was my dark sister, my goddess, my Lady Cheva [heroin]. Itwas not hard for her to lure me, Ipractically worshiped her anyway. Heroin became themost important part of every minute of my life.... Everything else and everyone else dwindled in importance tome. I chose my drugs over my son, my family, my friends, myself. Similar Below to Miller and Barnes, most of Inanna with of the women equated the Great
in the myth
life on the streets. Helen Keyes, a heavi
lymedicated, elderlyAfricanAmericanwoman, did not identifya specific

call, rather she talked about her journey bility. Keyes, whose stepfather operated mother to the underworld were as an inevita and grandmother addicts and whose
a drug ring out of their house,
said simply that by the
496
SaraL.Warner
time she was a teenager, she was already there. Schwartz
said, "the lure of
the underworld started callingme at a very young and very precious and tender age." Although she claimsnot to know why she responded to the call, Schwartz records very early in her twenty-page response paper an
episode of childhood things I did as a child. oldest brother left me sexual abuse: "I don't Iwas molested know why I did a lot of the My and violated in kindergarten.
in the basement with
his friend who was about six
teen yearsold. He forced me to give him head."The connection between a

life of crime and incest seemed all too clear for Angelique Well Bieleki: was an I got started in this game at eight years old because my mother and my father was a dope dealer. My mom
addict and prostitute,
iswhat you
could call his free-bee by night. Well by the time I could remember they always fought and one night my mom left but when she left she leftme with him. So he job. I knew nothing else. He used me and broke me in to continue my mother's
beat me, raped, abused and got me started on crack cocaine and turning tricks.
The same goes forLorettaOlivencia, a young, beautifulwoman of mixed racialheritagewho sported two gold teeth and her boyfriend'sname tat
tooed on her neck. Olivencia age ... being molested was fast and wild "started living in the underworld the streets before Iwas a teenager, at an early I and . . .I at sixmade me grow up thinking sex was okay....
running
wanted to be likemy brothers, hard core always in prison." Yolanda

Williams, women a tough-talking who pinpointed African American an exact moment butch, was one of the few she heard the call to the when
underworld. She was an eight-year-old playing in front of her "project

houses in Potrero Hill" with her cousin Anne. They were watching recalls, and "my cousin Anne to be the pimp because said I want the whore a pimp to be a ho and awhore, Williams and I said Iwanted money.
gave him all her live in the PJ's
The pimp had nice material
things and he did not
[housingprojects]." Although Williams claims that her call to the under

world was motivated by a desire for wealth and power, the fact that she that her call was lists incest as the first of her seven gates of hell suggests
not so different from thatof the other participantsafter all.

Although she is unsure of the exact motivation, Inanna makes a con
scious decision to descend to the underworld. She is a consenting adult.

There is, however, a hidden component of sexual abuse in the tale, and as
I listened to thesewomen's interpretationsof themyth I regretted that I had not talked about the goddess's genealogy or included the "Huluppu
SaraL.Warner
497
Tree" story in the summary of themyth I told the sessionbefore.Similar to the inmates, Inanna's matrilineage includes women who were sexually abused as children. In particular, her paternal grandmother, Ninlil, was brutally and repeatedly raped by Enlil when he "forc[ed]open her too
small vagina," a violation that resulted in the birth of Inanna's father and
her marriage to the rapist.The "Huluppu-Tree" dealswith the adolescent Inanna'sinitiation into culture and the repressionof female sexuality that this entails.'4 Both the inmates' stories and themyths of Inannahighlight a discrepancybetween a call to the underworld,which impliesagency and
volition, and an act, one that is sexual in nature and happens against their
will orwithout their consent, that sends them, or some part of them into exile in the underworld. Can we attribute agency to a prepubescent girl? At what point do these inmates cease to be girls? Become criminals? How
and by what standards do we or can we hold them accountable for their
actions? Should there be a point at which we analyze these inmates' crimes in relationship to their childhood trauma?In the tales the partici pants told thatnight, itdid not appearthat the descent to the underworld was a conscious decision,but it isprecisely this sense of agency that Jones andReynolds hope to foster through an exploration of their lives in rela tionship tomythic narratives and through their conscious choice to Medea Project. respond to the call of the
WHO Despite IS YOUR DARK SISTER? the fact that Inanna is completely divested of her power by the
time she reaches the seventh gate of hell, she does not appear to humbled by her descent. As she enters the underworld, her first impulse is a hostile
and imperialistic one.Without greeting Ereshkigal, without even amen

tion of the funeral or of her sister's loss, Inanna attempts to capitalize on
vulnerable state and to captureher throne, in much the same Ereshkigal's

way that she had taken the holy laws from the inebriated Enki. But, as
Diane Wolkstein notes, "all that Inanna had achieved on earth weighs
against her when she meets the woman at whose expense Inanna's glories from a
had been attained."The jealous and vengeful Ereshkigal fastens the evil
eye of death on her sister Inanna and hangs her rotting corpse
meat hook. According toWolkstein, Ereshkigal "can be considered the prototype of thewitch-unloving, unloved, abandoned, instinctual, and full of rage,greed, and desperate loneliness."She seesEreshkigal as "the
498
SaraL.Warner
other, neglected sideof Inanna,""the dark sideof Inanna."'5 According to SylviaPerera,Ereshkigal represents the abject feminine and the return of the repressed, whereas Inanna,prior to her descent, represents the per fectly initiated "daughterof the patriarchy,"awoman who has internal wounded in ... rela ized society's misogynistic views, one who is "badly tion to the feminine"andwho strives "touphold the virtues and aesthetic ideals which the patriarchalsuperego has presented." Inanna's journey to the underworld symbolizes forPereraher desire forwholeness and a need to reclaim the denigrated and abject aspects of the feminine. She reads
Inanna's descent as a desire to "redeem what the patriarchy has often seen
only as a dangerous threatand called terrible mother, dragon, orwitch."'6 This isexactly how Barnes describedEreshkigal when she named herself
as her own dark sister. "Iwould was the one, the shit ... name my sister Big Rachael because she ... [who] had it all together hurt, in the underworld
she was strong.
raped, beaten, molested, I had to be strong-not
abandoned,
and she had to be I found out it
to let no one too close....
was me who
I hated for being so insecure, so hard core, not knowing Barnes's description underscores what
how
to act as a woman."
Perera identi
fies as Ereshkigal's "self-spite" and what Wolkstein categorizes as the

"powerful, raging sexuality, and the deep wounds "Iwas my accumulated from life's
Williams too believed rejections" that define the underworld goddess."7

that she was her own Ereshkigal, down by making wrong agent of her own destruction, have been all to willing an example of an ex-lover who own dark sister. I keep me stated that she has been the choices." Schwartz
but that there have been many
sisters who
to assist her in her downward
spiral, and she gave
sold her to a guy for five hits of Ritalin.
The guy repeatedly rapedSchwartz for five hours before he let her go.
Olivencia was the only participant to designate a male, her abusive
boyfriend,asher dark sister.

WHAT IS THE WISDOM OF THE UNDERWORLD?
It is only after Inanna has been divested of the duties of queen, wife, and mother; has unlearned accepted modes of the underworld. of sexual and social conduct; This unlearning and
been liberated from her former relationship her ear to the wisdom
to her body that she can open in order to learn
ispainful.As Keyes noted, thewisdom of the underworld took "some long because she has gone about the process indirectly." This process suffering"
SaraL.Warner
499
which formost women involvesgiving up the illusion requiresa sacrifice, that something or someone external to the situation can save us.Miller
said that to be like Inanna and "be reborn into the light of day, Iwould
have to leavebehindmy ignorance.For itwas my ignorance that allowed would without a second thought ofwho I me to give up such precious gifts bewithout them."Along with her ignorance,Miller relinquished her innocence: "AsInannachose her simple shepherdhusband,or innocence, to be the one she needed to sacrifice,Ichoose myinnocence. Iam no longer What Miller is willingly sacrifice." a naive,young girl.That part ofmy life I must sacrificeif she is to be successfulin her jour willing to sacrifice,in fact ney to recovery,is the imageof herself as the innocentvictim.
Olivencia came to a similar conclusion when she realized that she must
more than anyone in theworld sacrificethe person she believed she loved to save herself. She told the group that every time she tried to complete this part of the assignment she got sidetracked. "Whenever I started to write, I got flashes aboutmy childhood,"Olivencia said.Frustrated, she finally stopped trying to complete the assignment andwrote a letter to hermother instead,confessing that for years she had been dishonestwith her. From the time shewas six,Olivencia had been sexually abusedby her stepfather,Ray, and although hermother askedher several timesduring her adolescence if Ray had ever "messedwith her," Olivenica always
denied it because Ray had threatened to hurt both of them if she ever told
anyone the truth. For the first time,Olivenciamade the connection be tween childhood sexual abuseand her habit of sleepingunder the bed and in the bathroom closetwith having sex at twelve-years-old,shoplifting,
doing drugs, being in a ten-year relationship with an abusive man, and landing in and out of jailmore times than she could count. IfOlivencia's
mother suspectedRay ofmolesting her daughter, surely some part of her knew that he was. Every timeOlivencia'smother danced that rhetorical
dance with her daughter, that "I'll ask, but you don't tell" tango, she
victims communicatedwith acute clarity thatdaughters are the sacrificial

in our family rituals. The day Olivencia wrote that letter to her mother,
she sacrificedthe illusionof love and protection hermother represented.

WHAT Most Do You HAVE TO DO TO SAVE YOURSELF? focused their attention on the first four questions
of the inmates
Jones assigned.So few people attempted to address the questions "What
500
SaraL.Warner
do you have
to do to save yourself?"
and "Where do your
loyalties
lie?"
that Jones reassigned these topics.Even though themyth clearly states

that Inanna must sacrifice her dependence on men as a condition of her
return from the underworld,many women found it impossibleto narrate

a story in which they were the agents of their own salvation, and they
willingly gave over this position of power tomen: to pastors, fathers, boyfriends, lovers, and/or pimps. According to Perera, this stems from a desire to "avoidthe pain of bearing theirown renewal, theirown separate
being and uniqueness."'8 It is also the case that our culture does not afford
women, especially poor women, traumatizedwomen, and women of colormany opportunities to articulate themselves by themselves and/or for themselves, as separateand unique beings. Iwould argue that Jones's final two questionswere themost difficult for thewomen to answerpre cisely because the narrative discourses at their disposal cannot entertain these questions.Mythology, particularly the ancientmyth of the power
ful queen Inanna, offers women a different language, a different set of dis
cursive strategies, inwhich to interpellate themselves to themselves and

to the world. Just as Inanna must unlearn the structures of thought and
civilization to hear the call and imagine another possibility for existence,
so too must the women in jail be encouraged to divest themselves of the
narrative frameworks that limit rather than expand on their possibilities for forgingnew ontologies.
Most women were not able to respond but could to this question say only what in the affirma they stop they should tive, that is they could not state with should do to save themselves, any degree of specificity what
doing. They could describe the descent to the underworld in copious detail because they had been there,were in fact dwelling there,but they
could not describe the myth. Many ways they would the ascent because they had not yet lived that part of that if they did not change their participants die. Schwartz said simply
said that if she knew what
she had to do to
saveherself shewould not be here in jailanswering these questions. The

problem is "regaining my desire to live again . .. just finding the will, the
desire, the need iswhat keeps coming and going" in Schwartz's life.She
stressed the fact that it is hard to be optimistic and that if she did feel a desire for change, about the Medea Project, or
when one is facing the possibilityof ten years in prison, anything really,
she would have "to repress this
andmost feelings like it" to "survive mentally, emotionally, survivegoing
SaraL.Warner
50I
back" to prison.Learninghow to negotiate thewisdom of the underworld, she said "would help me implement a plan on how to savemyself with better odds."
WHERE Do YOUR LOYALTIES LIE? WHO LOYAL? Is LOYAL TO YOU?
To WHOM
ARE You
Once she is reborn, Inanna's first desire is to leave the underworld and return home, but she can do so only on one condition, that she send someone to theGreat Below to takeher place.After her descent, Inanna is loyal only to thosewho have been loyal to her, namely Ninshubur, her children, and herself. Dumuzi was not loyal, and without a second
thought Inanna fixes the evil eye of death on her former lover and sends
him to the underworld as her surrogate.The issue of loyaltywas not as

clear-cut for the inmates. More than anything, Iwas moved by the echo
ing silence that ensuedwhen Jonescalled forvolunteers to respond to this question.Of the six original questions related to themyth of Inanna, this
was by far the most difficult for the participants to address. At this stage in
the process thewomen had not yet sacrificedtheir innocence or tradedin Without a sense of theircloak of victimhood for amantle of responsibility. agency, the only kinds of relationshipsthat arepossible are ones basedon dependencies. So, how could they saywhere their loyalties lie? If the
women wrote anything on the topic, it generally aman took no more than one or two lines on a sheet of paper. Although had listed a relationship with to save themselves, an actual allegiance the majority of the participants they were planning that fantasy into not a brother, had saying that loyal or who
as one of the ways
no one seemed capable of morphing or loyalty. No one named to whom named of the women a man, they were
father, lover, or pimp, as someone been loyal to them. Most
their mothers,
theywere grateful to theirmothers for continuing to love them despite

all of the hell they had put them through and thanked them for taking
or livingon the streets. careof theirchildrenwhile theywere incarcerated

Although the majority of inmates were mothers, not one of them named
their children aspersons towhom they had loyalties,an observationboth JonesandReynoldsmade thatnight.
502
Sara L.Warner
THE MYTH Jones missed
OF THE REAL three of the eight weeks of the workshop because she was
starring in the Vagina Monologues. Reynolds and Cooper-Anifowoshe con

ducted the sessions in Jones's absence. These sessions followed the same
format,with one important difference.Neither Reynolds nor Cooper

Anifowoshe questions made any direct reference for homework to the Inanna story. Although were related to elements the of the they assigned
myth, the connections remained implicit rather than explicit.This deci

sion proved to be very productive on the one hand, but very problematic assignments to examine is really twofold. the material and on the other. The purpose They are designed of the writing participants
to encourage
social conditions in the creation performance.
that result in their incarceration of material
and to assist the inmates
that can be crafted into scripts for the public to stray from the myth to engage with the
The decision
"reality" of the women's rialwhen
lives resulted
in Jones scrambling importantly,
for script mate in unex
she returned. Perhaps more
it unearthed,
pected ways, how fully imbricated mythology The first topic Reynolds is home? Who home? Given participants narratives Participant asked the women
is in "the real world." to consider was home: What
lives there?What
are the sights, smells, sounds, and tastes of of familial abuse and neglect for more that the of the same with
the graphic depictions
had already offered, I braced myself in tremendous
this topic. Iwas completely described after participant
taken aback by the responses. Most women's detail not actual, but fantasy homes. that exist only on shared stories about homes
Nick atNight reruns of TheWaltons and LittleHouse on thePrairie. Apron-apparel
edmothers serving freshly baked bread populated these sitcom-inspired

domiciles. Olivencia, the woman who hid in closets and slept under her this way: bed to hide from her stepfather's Home sexual advances, described home
is a peaceful place, a place where
there are no worries and definitely no
cares. The air is so clear you can hear the birds singing and see the butterflies fly ing around. When you close your eyes you can smell the sweet sensation of Home is a warm blueberry muffins with butter and powdered sugar on top.... beautiful precious joy, a place where Idon't have to be afraid. Most people echoed Olivencia's said, "Home tome depiction of home as a safe place, a haven. securi
Schwartz
is a sanctuary
in some ways. Comfort,
ty,warmth, laughter, love,music, freedom/privacy,definitely a comfort
SaraL.Warner
503
zone.... Violence rarely jumpswherever I call home."Miller described Home, she continued, is home as "a memory of security and happiness." actual "a feeling sort of like childhood nostalgia, but notnecessarily requiring It is anywhere that a comfortable feeling of security is memories. childhood a time" recalled by nostalgic memories . . . that remindme of onceupon (emphasis mine).
Miller's once upona time is situated in the temporality of myth, of the myth
with a house surroundedby awhite picket of theAmerican dream replete fence. Every participant in theworkshop describedhome as the place they wished they had grown up in as a child, the home theybelieve some lucky girl somewhere actually did grow up in. These descriptions of idealized homes areparadigmaticexamplesof thepotential ofmyth to be interpret ed in conservative, restrictive,and limitingways. It isprecisely this typeof Medea Project seeks thinking and these typesof social constructs that the to deconstruct. Reynolds joked that these places sounded fabulous, "like heaven, not home,"with "the birds and the butterflies,"and shewanted
to know when "Who is going are you going she could move to make in. On a more serious note she asked, the muffins and bake all that bread? And, where
to get the money
to buy all that nice stuff and not work,
but sit around all day all safe and happy?"
will majority ofwomen who are incarcerated Reynolds believes that the
return again and again to the prison system because marked on the number of women who jail is one of the only
where they have found stabilityand security.She re places in their lives

refer to their cells as their homes, run home in jail like six to ten months that prison felt more saying things like, "I forgot my paper in my house" or "let me and get my assignment." Barnes, who averaged per year for more home ilies that inmates uncle, Barnes nephew, than twenty years admitted form in jail. "You get a mom, nieces, and we're
than almost anywhere
she had ever lived. She talked about the fam a dad, a brother, a son, all the same sex, that's the cool part." like going back to visit your par
joked that returning
to jail was
ents and staying in your old room. You go back, she said, and everything is just like you left it, the table and chair, the bed. You see the same people
most of the time too. It is likeyou never left.Reynolds believes that the systemboth endorses and encourages thiskind of thinking.Deputies, for
example, They do not refer to jail cells as inmates' parent houses, but as theirhome. as their enact the role of the authorial and treat inmates
504
SaraL.Warner
dependent children.Deputies often say things such as, "youwill do such

and such while you are in my house" or "you will not do such and such
undermy roof." Inmates are encouraged to be dependent in jailand are generally punished if they are not. Their entire day isplanned for them, and they cannot even use the restroomwithout being granted permis sion.How does thisprepare women to return to lifeon the outside, for re entry into the largersocial system? Reynolds's second assignmentwas towrite about realisticand/or nega tive imagesof home. Either home was a difficult concept for the partici
pants to engage with, or the lack of amythic framework resulted in a void
thewomen found difficult to fill,or both. Schwartz'scomplaint about the

assignment done stashed made is revealing. "Damn, I hate you for making me go there. Man it down, mothers I this shit away a long time ago. I crammed it shut." Whereas mythical taped it, ruled
it iron clad and welded
the roost in themajority of the first responses to home, wicked queens and despotic kings reignedsupreme in thisassignment.
HANGING When Medea ON THE MEATHOOK her run of the Vagina Monologues, she had only three consist of a series of performance performance pieces based segments by a
Jones completed
weeks to transform theworkshop material into a public performance.

Project productions during
on inmates' responses to the foundationmyth. The myth is recounted to

the audience the intervals between
narrator,usually Jonesand/orReynolds. The myth provides a framework for the inmates' self-exploration,and it lends some coherence to the con tent of the stories thewomen tell about themselves. Jones's extended
absence and the lack of attention given to the myth in the workshop ses
sions directed by Reynolds and Cooper-Anifowoshe, coupledwith a high turnover rateof participants,resulted in the groupworking frantically to
assemble a script. In addition, the production was supposed to focus on in the problem writing home. of reentry, and thus far no one in the group had succeeded
a single story about the ascent from the underworld As Jones listened the women's to the inmates' responses
or the return
to the final question
Reynolds assigned, "whatwas your lowest low?"shemade connections

between narratives and the story of Inanna that she thought to think about the Queen Inanna hanging
would expedite theprocess.

Jones asked the participants
SaraL.Warner
505
on themeat hook in the underground lairof Ereshkigal. Inanna reaches her "lowest low"when she is impaledon themeat hook and left to rot. She has beenmaimed and her flesh is mangled, Jones reminds the group,
and Inanna has to decide if she is going to live or die. "I fear that that's
where a lot of us are.We are busy deteriorating,"continued Jones. "The

real question is do you want to live or die. It is as simple as that." Tell me
right now, Jonesdemanded, "How are you going to get down from that
meat hook. What do you have to do to save yourself?" When no one
responded, Jones staged quite a tantrum. She told thewomen that she was furiouswith them for not being able to answer a simple question, a question she asked them on the very first night of theworkshop. Tell yourselves that you are taking the reinsof your own life,Jonesurged the women, that you are not wearing orange anymore.Tell yourselves, "I'm leaving the underworld. I'm headed back to theworld. I'm going to be a
queen. I'm going to live like a queen." That iswhat the Medea Project is
about. It "is aboutwomen saving their own lives through the creative process. I'm not going to pretend," continued Jones, "that it is going to
happen tomorrow, but that's the goal." Inanna is on the hook Inanna is about for a long time, but she saves herself, "that's what ... going into the
more than an inmate," Jones told underworld and returning." "You're

the participants, "more than a crack whore, more than a number, and that's what we are trying to get back to."
minutes of rantingand raving,Jones took a decidedly dif After several

ferent approach with the women. She instructed the group to lie on the
floor in a circlewith their eyes closed and their heads touching. Once everyonewas settled, Jones led the participantsin a guidedmeditation:
If you live through this situation, and by miracles, or just because you've done your time and there's no more runs left in you, who do you have to ask forgive ness from? ... Who do you have to beg their pardon? ... In growing and turning into that queen again . . . who do you have to ask forgiveness of? Who do you have to call out on that road home? . .. Is there somebody who has loved you despite all the bullshit you put them through? ... Who would you go to see to say, "I'm sorry. I'm back from the underworld, and I justwant to thank you for being there, for loving me and allowing me to grow bigger, to expand." Find the names, the room with Jones told the women, the names. and whisper them. Slowly fill up of their ... Jengo,
As the participants
said the names I hear grandma
loved ones, Jones repeated them. "I hear mama.
506
Sara L.Warner
Josa." Let the names out, Jonescoaxed, let the sound build. "Imaginethat it is like smoke climbing out of the underworld."The voices grew louder
as Jones continued moan; others to repeat the names she heard. Some women started to began to cry. Jones paced at the edge of the circle just as
Ninshubur paced at themouth of the gates of hell. The vizier could not
save Inanna, but she was instrumental in creating the conditions that
meditation invited the participants to enabled the queen's return. Jones's within themselvesand to empathizewith thepeo embrace theEreshkigal ple they leftbehindwhen they responded to the call of the underworld. In themyth, it is thisempathetic identificationthat alleviates the suffering of the underworld goddess and moves her to release Inanna from the
meat hook. What the participants could not see in the myth, how to save
themselves,Jonesenacted for them.

Jones's interpretation of Inanna's ascent and her use of this story at a
critical juncture in theworkshop supportsEstes's theory about the power

of myth. A myth, she says, "shows us the way out, down, or up, and for
our trouble, cuts us finewide doors in previously blankwalls, openings

that lead to the dreamland, that lead to love and learning." This is part of
the radical potential ofmythology, but as JonesandReynolds know, there isno guarantee that these storieswill translateinto real world options for
the inmates in the Medea Project. In fact, most of the women who begin the journey with performance. This Jones and her crew get lost somewhere is due in part to the chaotic atmosphere facility. It is also because most along the way.
The overwhelmingmajority of participantsdo not make it to the public

of jail and the of the women
constant coming and going of thewomen serving short sentences or

awaiting transfer to another are not prepared they would need for the journey or do not have the support and resources to attempt an ascent. But, even those inmates who par
ticipate in the workshop
for a very brief period of time have the opportu
nity to tell their story, possibly for the first time in their lives."Inmany del cultures,"notes Estes, "storiesare considered to bewritten like untatuaje
destino,a light tattoo on the skin of the one who case of the women scars. Estes maintains marked I met at San Francisco County has lived them," or in the jail, very long and deep
that the telling and retelling of the stories that have to soften old scar tis this kind of and envision anew."'9 It is precisely
us like un tatuajedel destino are "tangible ways
sue, balm old wounds,
"goodmedicine" that theMedea Project tries to administer through the
SaraL.Warner
507
cuentos with incarcerated women-to storytelling ritual, through intercambio transformtheirunderworld scarsintowarriormarks.
CAN WE GET THERE BY CANDLELIGHT?
centered on Inanna's call to the The public performance of Candlelight underworld, the descent through the seven gates of hell, and the time partici spent rotting on themeat hook. Only the formerly incarcerated pant,Wilson, created a performance segment about the ascent from the underworld and the returnhome, and thiswas only because Jonespushed her to do it.As someonewho isverymuch in the processof recovery, Wil
son found this to be both a difficult and a painful assignment. not produce Candlelightdid any Inannas, did not reform any inmates or pave the way for this mean that the myth of Inanna was a
their reentry into society. Does
poor choice for the Medea Projector that theprogram itself is ineffectivein It reallydepends on one's perspective.For its efforts to combat recidivism?
me, the efficacy of theMedea Project lies not in its success, but in its failure. "the space of the 'as if) in which we ourselves our own end and claimed
Mythology occupies a liminal space. It exists in the realm Drucilla

Cornell calls the imaginary domain, be ifwe made imagine who we might
What the inmates'engagementwith the ourselves as our own person."20

myth of Inanna reveals is that the struggle for agency, the struggle for
"whowe might be," is directly related to the limit of imagination.The Medea Project'smythical encounters rarely result in the participants'
achievement imagine? How of agency. How can anyone? can the inmates enact what If a mythical encounter they cannot yet reveals the limit of
imagination, then the process of mythic revisionprovides themeans to circumvent or extend the limitof imagination. Medea Project is, asFradenhas noted, the beginning Storytelling for the
of a different drama-a way to imagine, if not live out, a new life.What
Fraden categorizes as epic storytelling, I argue is actuallymythic story telling.More than creating and producing counter-epics, theMedea Project stages amythical encounter. Unlike other forms of storytelling such as autobiography, confession, and testimony,mythology does not
seek to inform or disclose a truth, and consequently, native to mimesis as a discursive and political it provides an alter as strategy. If storytelling,
Benjamin suggests, transforms the listener into a storyteller, thenwhat

affect does aMedea Project performance, which I regrettably do not have
508
Sara L.Warner
time to analyze in detail here, have on an audience? According to Estes's theory of intercambio cuentos, the audience becomes both awitness to and a participant in the gift exchange.The audiencewas literally moved to tears by the performance of Candelight. Although it ispossible that theweeping was simply a response to the very powerful stories the participantsper
formed, itmight be that the tears had nothing at all to do with catharsis.
Perhaps the audience's tears represent their inability to do anything but

cry in the face of the injustices dramatized on stage. Perhaps they are an
indicationof the audience's inability to imagine aworld inwhich women did not have such stories to tell.By inviting the audience to participate in themythical encounter,Medea Project'sperformances reveal that it isnot whose imaginationsare limited. only the inmates The question I posed at the beginning of this article remains:can the praxis of theMedea Project serve as the basis for a postmodern feminist
theory? I believe the answer is yes, although I have no clear idea what
forms thismight take.This paleomythic performance ethnography is an

attempt to enact what I cannot yet imagine.
NOTES
Medea to work with for the opportunity the Jones and Sean Reynolds to me. the for their stories I with thank Alicia Project participants sharing Elin Diamond, and Rena Fraden for their encouragement Drucilla and Ostriker, Cornell, critical insight into both this article and the it is drawn. longer work from which Tiffany grateful and Ana Lopez's careful and sensitive reading has also contributed much to this piece. I am to Rhodessa
1.
2.
Jean Trounstine, Shakespeare Behind Bars: The Power ofDrama in a Women's Prison (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001). one of many The Medea outreach conducted programs Project is community by the arts was founded in Cultural which 1979 Idris Ackamoor. organization, Odyssey, by the organization in 1983. A grant from the California in Arts Council at San Francisco for the theater workshop funding Jail that County gave rise to the Medea Project. are from the These quotes performance (see Open the Gate: Reality Is Just Outside the Window, VHS, dir. Kathy Katz, Cultural Odyssey, 1992). Jones joined 1987 provided Rena Fraden, ImaginingMedea: Rhodessa Jones and Theater for Incarcerated Women (Chapel Hill: of North Carolina Press, 2001), 48. University Clarissa Pinkola Est?s, Women Who Run with theWolves: Myths and Stories of theWild Woman Books, Archetype (New York: Ballantine 1995), 470, 467, 469-70. My Medea has also been influenced Project by the work of Ruth Behar, approach in particular to the The
3.
4.
5.
SaraL.Warner
509
Vulnerable Obsever: Anthropology that Breaks Your Heart (Boston: Beacon Press, 1997) and her Translated Woman: Crossing theBorder with Esperanzas Story (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993). 6. Rhodessa berry Lorraine Jones, "Director's Notes," San Francisco, 1 Apr. Food Taboos in the Land of theDead, Lorraine Hans Buried Fire, Notes," 1993; Jones, "Director's
Theater,
7.
San Francisco, 10 Jan. 1996; Jones, "Director's Notes," Theater, Hansberry onRace, Lorraine Hansberry Slouching towards Armageddon: A Captive's Conversation!Observation 1999. San 21 Francisco, Theater, Jan. to Inanna: Lady De foreword Judy Grahn, of Largest Heart, by Betty Shong Meador xi. For an account of of Texas the and xv, Press, 2000), discovery (Austin: University translation of Sumerian texts, see Samuel Noah Kramer, SumerianMythology: A Study of the Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium (New York: Harper Torchbooks,
1961).
8. 9. Meador, 9. Perera, Descent to Inanna:A Way of Initiation for Women (Toronto: Inner City Sylvia Brinton Books, 10. The
or not to name human an subjects is important topic of debate the subjects involve incarcerated especially when populations. It is for this reason This is an issue of safety, but it is also an issue of dignity. precisely that Jones actively encourages the inmates to use their given names in the workshop, are free to refuse, and a few each year The women and public performances, playbill. in feminist studies, do. Both the have Fraden (who and Andrews sign is not inmates I.Michelle and cited the names of followed Jones's model on the Medea as in their work Project, forms) a last name here because she was not part of the group given to record it. have the consent Noah Kramer and Diane Wolkstein, & Row, see Inanna Queen of Heaven and 1983).
1981), 18. issue of whether
for me long enough 11. Adapted from Samuel
Earth: Her Stories andHymns from Sumer (New York: Harper to Grahn, Meador, 12. In addition Perera, and Wolkstein,
Gimbutas, rpt. ed., and Hudson, The Language of the Goddess (New York: Thames Stark and 1995); Marcia Press, Sterne, The Dark Goddess: Dancing with the Shadow (Freedom, Calif.: Crossing Gynne Marija
and Marion Woodman, 1993); and Elinor Dickson Dancing in the Flames: The Dark Goddess in the Transformation Consciousness (Boston: Shambala, 1977). of In 13. Elizabeth Abel, "Black Writing, White Reading: Race and the Politics of Feminist terpretation" in Identities, ed. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates "The Storyteller: York: Schocken Jr. of Chicago Press, (Chicago: University on the Works Reflections of Nikolai Books, 14. Kramer 15. 1968), 89,471. and Wolkstein, 1995), 249; Walter Benjamin, Illuminations (New Leskov,"
141, 9, 136-46.
Ibid., 158,160. 11,7. 23; Kramer and Wolkstein, 160.
16. Perera, 17. Perera,
18. Perera, 78. 19. Est?s, 470,469,13. 20. Drucilla 2002), 8. Cornell, and Generations Legacies of Dignity: Between Women (New York: Palgrave,

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The Medea Project: Mythic Theater for Incarcerated Women Author(s): Sara L. Warner Source: Feminist Studies, Vol.

The Medea Project: for Mythic Theater Incarcerated Women

women in the late 1980s. conducting dramaworkshops with incarcerated

Headed Women, Jonesdecided to cre inmates in her class,BigButt Girls-Hard

IsJust Outside formance. In 1992,the group staged its firstproduction, Reality

Feminist Studies 30, no. 2 (Summer

the dramaworkshop came to realize, says Jones, is that everyone could

be for all women,"

and crimes have been committed

and proper sense, it issomeone's life."5

years later, when

reentry-how to assist inmates in their reentry into society, communities,

The Medea myths

Dead (1994), a revision of the Demeter staged FoodTaboos in theLandof the

Persephonemyth, which journeyed "into contemporary hell to explore

Jones calls "the

art of re-memory," of the female

"the trials and tribulations to find her own voice, to

reclaim herself, her own of the ugly duckling women's

life." Taking Hans Christian Andersen's explored

as its basis, this production

"the incarcerated and, hope for Slouching

story of pain, degradation,

the source material

towards Armageddon:A Captive's Conversation/ObservationonRace (1999), an inves

production, the SumerianQueen Inanna. Although relativelyunknown,

various versions on clay tablets in cuneiformwriting sometime between

tells of her death

is female. Remarking of Inanna's "Suddenly discovery

on the historical in the twentieth

and literary import century,

Judy Grahn is replaced not dragged

schism of Greek myth is not fractured,

goddess."7 She embodies

long for, a spirituality grounded

in the reflection of a divine

lure of Inanna for many

lies in the fact that she is

"I'm a nervous wreck," she shouted. "Somebodycalmme down." This

locker room where we were granted me permission informed by the deputy

told to place our personal

effects. Jones had research, but Iwas

to record the rehearsals for my

that I could not record because video clearance were

forms had not yet been processed. Once our belongings

stored, we were women's facility

unit called E-Pod. San Francisco County that houses

main areaof the jail resembles the StarshipEnterprise,employing a sleek

The pod is a bilevel semicir McDonald's Playland-like. best be describedas

waiting for the guard/pharmacist to dispensemedications. The restof the

was inten hair braided. The claustrophobia I immediatelyfelt in this space

shoes on and assembling, orders for the women

too long for Reynolds,

Jones,Reynolds, and Spackman had come to the jail the previousweek

program.Thirty-sevenwomen had signed up for theMedea Project, but

lined up before they decided whether

which Spackman promptly did. There was no attempt to convince or

while sharing informationabout programs, shelters, and support services

Hoping to ease uplifting program rhetorichere; thisgroup plays hardball.

nolds said, "let'sdispense with thebull shit, rightnow."

cacy and the potential it is scary when alone

for damage when

"we open Pandora's box." She said